Offshore yourself: Making the move to Shanghai

InfoWorld 12 hot cities: Embedded programming, as well as Cobol, C#, Java, and .Net skills are in demand, but the best jobs go to fluent Chinese speakers

 

China is if nothing else a complex, not easily understood country with many different political currents running through its system. Its relationship with foreigners is simultaneously open and closed. Of China's many cities, Shanghai -- the key industrial city -- attracts multinationals and even Indian IT consultancies that are setting up shop to contain the rising costs of outsourcing services in their home country.

[ Use  InfoWorld's interactive map to learn about 12 hot cities and 6 regions you should consider for tech jobs abroad. Learn more about China and its other tech hot spot, Hong Kong. ]

What's hot: Shanghai's tech industry tends to focus on development of embedded- and chip-level programming. Also, Cobol, Java, C++, C#, and .Net are good skills to have under your belt there, says Sam Lee, managing director of Dextrys, an outsourcing company.

An emerging area, says Brian Keene, CEO of Dextrys, is product engineering. Dextrys has been getting a lot of software business for product development, product extensions, and replatforming, he says.

Finally, if gaming is your thing, the Shanghai-Huizhou corridor attracts companies using the more advanced development technologies.

Despite the demand, there are mixed signals as to whether American immigrants are welcome to fill them. Lee says companies will be tripping all over themselves to hire you. "There is a tremendous demand. Every CEO worldwide is interested in China as a market," Lee says. And these executives want IT people who have experience working there in order to liaise with local executives.

But John Murdoch, principal at Abeam Consulting, is not so sure Americans have a lock on such jobs. "The days for Western guys to show up in China and think there is a job waiting for them are past. Today is more about sales than technology," he says.

U.S. and multinational tech companies: It is safe to assume most major companies, as well as many small and medium ones, have a China strategy, which means either they are looking to sell products within China or looking to leverage China as an outsourcer. In either case, the company will be on site to shepherd its strategy to fruition. That means there are lots of potential employers.

In the tech space, EMC, Intel, Microsoft, and Oracle all have huge facilities.

And ever since China was let into the World Trade Organization, financial services companies began setting up shop in China.

Red tape: If you do find an appropriate tech job, you will need a work visa. There are many types, including a business/official visit visa, an employment/work visa, and a resident visa.

Any visa must be obtained before you enter the country. If you did somehow land a job in China without one of these official visas and got caught, you'd likely be deported very quickly.

Language: Dextrys is a good example of a U.S.-based firm with a presence in China. It has about 1,000 employees, all of whom speak English. "There is sometimes a challenge of the accent but written English is excellent and it is not a major issue," Murdoch says.

However, Murdoch says the best job opportunities, even in multinational firms, go to Chinese Americans who speak the local language fluently. "If you can read Chinese characters, that is a huge asset," Murdoch says.